How to Teach Your Dog to Love WATER & SWIMMING
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it’s the peak of summer and taking your
dog or your puppy with you to the beach
or the pool can be a great way to make
life fun for both you and your dog it’s
also a great way to exercise them and
build the confidence most dogs are not
comfortable with immediately just
jumping in the water the first time they
see it today I’m going to show you the
steps you need to take in order to get
your dog comfortable with swimming does
your dog like to swim tell me in the
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click thumbs up for another dog training
video now let’s go meet Josh and Jews
Josh how old is June June is 11 to 12
weeks we got her from a heiko shelter in
Colorado that’s not even a lifeline
puppy rescue awesome it’s a great
organization non-profit props to you for
rescuing a dog best dogs control a
rescue dogs I’ve always wanted a dog
since I was 5 and I found this little
girl just came right up to us jumped on
us started licking playing I actually
almost left because I was like I just I
don’t know it me and my girlfriend her
sitting in the car and she’s like are
you sure you want to leave and I was
just like cuz I couldn’t leave like I
couldn’t start the car and she’s like
you got to turn around and go get her I
was like okay so after about Tim after
yeah sure about ten minutes of talking
pros and cons about having her um we
turned around went in saw in the papers
sounds like she’s a really good match
for you too cuz she’s kind of active
you’re active she’s very friendly when
we walked down the street it’s me having
to kind of hold her back from meeting
everybody all shapes and sizes all ages
what do you hoping to get out of having
a dog a best friend someone who always
gonna be there no matter what I do the
students show any interest in really
having a desire to go swimming she does
um she’s so a little wary of the pool I
think and water she looks like she’s
gonna be comfortable she needs that
extra push I want her to be comfortable
for maybe doc diving in the future
or if it’s the morning and I’m a little
tired I can bring her to a lake throw a
ball she can get it bring it back a few
times and then that’s a great morning
exercise tell me about it that’s how you
living here in the south it gets really
really hot there are a few benefits of
teaching your dog to swim especially
when they’re young the obvious is it
keeps them cool while they’re exercising
but with puppies we want to be really
careful not to over exercise them
because they’re still growing and
developing and swimming can be a nice
low-impact way for them to get to get
used to that when teaching your dog to
swim you can never be too careful most
dogs are pretty nervous the first time
they encounter a big body of water and
understandably so right why don’t you
show me what June has done so far some
of the things you’ve taught her June sit
looks like she’s going straight into it
down so you must have taught her down
that’s a very normal phase you have to
go through with your dog oftentimes only
anticipate that’s normal all dogs do
that be encouraged not discouraged any
compliance at all is a good thing and
should be celebrated I’d like to see
that she can come to you on land before
we ask her to come to you in the water
so I’m gonna hold her over here I’m
gonna distract her a little bit see how
she does and whenever you’re ready just
go ahead and call her June June June
come here yeah there you go good that’s
work we want to do everything we can to
reduce any of that preliminary anxiety
that she’s likely to experience so the
first thing I’d like to do is give her
comfortable with this life vest right
here this is an outward hound life vest
so she does start to get nervous or has
any anxiety she at least has this vest
on so that she has some support you can
actually get this vest at pet flow calm
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discounts are applied I’m thinking we
need to put this on June and get her
comfortable with it Josh you might
notice that this life vest has a handle
on it so you can easily pick her up why
don’t you give that a shot okay looks
good also looks pretty good
she does she does I
it’s a good idea to let her just kind of
run around with it and make her forget
about the fact that it’s on it should go
without saying but the last thing you
want to do is just throw your dog into
the water you want to really ease them
into it and be super patient with them
you ready to get started on training
yeah absolutely
cool let’s go josh is going to get in
the pool we’re gonna see if we can
encourage Jun to come in the pool I
would love to join them but my audio
equipment might get destroyed you may
need to take a few days to get them
interested in the water and really get
them comfortable with it it can be a
pretty strange experience to go swimming
for the first time if you’re a puppy I
would imagine anyway priority number one
is to get or keep your dog in a good
mood if possible try getting your dog to
play with you around the pool so that
they know that this is a fun place to be
it’s important that you have something
to really motivate your dog to get in
the pool if your dog is receptive to a
squeaky toy or any type of toy I would
encourage you to use that first before
encouraging them with food but some dogs
are really not as motivated by that so
there’s nothing wrong with using food
ah now you saw yeah good good got a
slapper around with the toy play with
her a little bit yeah
our goal is to make our dog want to swim
not just get them in the water for the
sake of swimming if you notice that your
dog starts to get increasingly nervous
either take a break or find a way to put
them at ease now I suspected that June
might be a little bit more comfortable
if we could make her feel a bit safer
and you can see there’s little anxiety
on her part but she’s considering it you
can tell with her tails wagging now what
do you think she’s saying right there I
think this first step is only a few
inches so if she’s comfortable with it
I’d like to see if we can put her on
this first step right here and then
maybe it might make it easier so it’s
not so daunting to just jump straight
down into something we want to
immediately get that positive
association if possible my preference
may have been to take June out of the
pool here after she fell but I could
tell that Josh saw that she was
receptive to listening so it made sense
to let this play out a little bit longer
sometimes you just have to let a person
connect with their dog and then give her
some support go ahead and put her out to
let her know that she can get out the
point of that is just so she doesn’t
freak out immediately a lot of dogs will
be like oh my gosh how do I get out here
and look she looks just fine she was a
little bit nervous before we tried to
get her to come in with a toy but now
we’re gonna use chicken and see if that
motivates her to want to come in
yep and keep that keep it coming
you know what I mean maybe this is a
huge victory right here she’s
voluntarily staying in the water now we
are creating that good Association by
giving her chicken I have a feeling that
she’s gonna not care about the chicken
at all once she gets used to the water
this is a good way to introduce them to
it yes
and give her some support
hold her so she knows you got her that
was a wonderful moment right there make
her feel safe that’s what we’re trying
to do with this look at that that’s
great you can kind of hold her while
she’s underwater a bit if you’d like
that way she becomes a bit more
desensitized if you feel the moment is
right let go over a little bit and then
immediately pick her back up there’s
that handle I love that handle yep if
you want to let her out that’s cool too
huge victory wonderful you have to be
content with little victories like this
that’s wonderful that would be a whole
training session but I think we have
some momentum here so let’s keep going
June seems to be pretty comfortable
swimming around a little bit with the
light vest on so I think the next step
here is to see if she’s comfortable
swimming around the pool without it
dogs do know how to swim naturally so
that shouldn’t be an issue but we want
to make sure that we’re there to support
them remember if your dog doesn’t
totally love just jumping in the pool
it’s not a terrible idea to bring them
in with you and it is normal for them to
experience a little bit of anxiety there
but you want to really minimize that and
create a good association with it
letting your dog get some exercise
before you get them in the pool is a
good idea that’s a good way to reduce
anxiety too I want to try a little
exercise right now in brief you’re
comfortable with it I would love your
help since students getting a little bit
more comfortable with the water now it
makes sense for brie to hold June and
have Josh call June and see if she’ll
swim to him that would be pretty awesome
look at that
look at her go
this sums up if you enjoyed this video
does your dog like to swim tell me in
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Josh you guys did awesome man really
good work thank you good job
I really hope you guys enjoyed the video
june and josh we’re just so fun to work
with make sure you subscribe and check
out these other videos too is your dog a
little bit more reserved or shy Lucy the
chihuahua and I will help you resolve
this do you want help getting your dog
to love taking a bath check out Piper
the Aussie if you don’t know how to
click or train a dog and you have a new
dog you’ll definitely want to check out
teddy if your dog is nervous of
strangers especially men watch Milly
overcome her reluctance I’ll give you a
lot of tips in that video that will help
you out can’t wait to see you guys in
the next video it’s going to be a really
really good one we’re going to demystify
a lot of these stereotypes and myths and
dog training you’re definitely not going
to want to miss that
